Vibrators



Sept. 29, 1959 1.. v. VLOVERDE VIBRATORS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 25, 1957 Sept. 29, 1959 L. v. LOVERDE VIBRATORS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 25, 1957 INVENTOR.

United States Patent VIBRATORS Lawrence V. Loverde, Chicago, 111., assignor to pak Mfg. Co., Cook County, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application November 25, 1957, Serial No. 698,602

4 Claims. (Cl. 200-90) This invention relates to vibrators of the type used for interrupting one or more electric circuits. Interruptors of the type to which this invention pertains are generally used where a direct current is to be interrupted for the purpose of stepping up the potential or voltage by means of transformers. A substantial field of use for such vibrators is in connection with automobile radios and certain other devices where a comparatively low voltage direct current source is available and must be stepped up to a higher voltage.

Vibrators referred to above have been known and have been available in the market for many years. Thus, in United States Patent 2,252,882, issued August 19, 1941, there is disclosed one form of vibrator. Another form of vibrator construction is disclosed in United States Patent 2,213,854, issued September 3, 1940. Both forms of vibrators employ a flexible reed rigidly clamped at one end and having an armature at the other end. The reed carries movable contacts which cooperate with stationary contacts. The reed itself is maintained in continuous oscillation by means of an electro-magnet and a suitable magnetic field structure. Inasmuch as the detailed construction and operation of such vibrators are well known and well understood no further description thereof for the present is deemed necessary.

Vibrators of the types illustrated in the patents referred to above are generally operated at about 50 or 60 cycles per second, this corresponding to about 100 to about 120 oscillations of the reed. The amount of current which can be handled by one vibrator is limited in practice by the size and number of contacts. In order to secure good contact life it is essential that the current density at the contact bases be maintained ata safe value. In practice vibrators used in automobile radios can handle a maximum of about 25 watts while maintaining generally satisfactory contact life.

A substantial demand has existed for vibrators which will handle greater power. While the're'have been vibrators available which purported to handle greater levels of power than 25 or 30 watts, such constructions have been invariably expensive and have not had long life. Inasmuch as vibrators available on the market for use in automobile radios and the like have been highly developed and have proven to be generally satisfactory, it is desirable that such units be retained if possible.

This invention provides a construction wherein any desired number of separate vibrators may be operated in unison to function as a team for the purpose of handling greater amounts of power than can be handled by one vibrator. By virtue of the invention the change in construction of a conventional vibrator is minimized thus retaining substantially all of the benefits of present day vibrators Without being limited by their power levels. In accordance with the present invention, the armature of a conventional vibrator is modified so that one armature will cooperate with armatures of adjacent vibrators to maintain a plurality of vibrators in step. In order that ice the invention may be fully understood it will now be disclosed in connection with the drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 shows one embodiment of the invention utilizing four vibrator units, this figure showing the units in elevation with one unit being shown in section.

Fig. 2 is a top view of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section along line 3-3 of Fig. 2 illustrating one of the vibrator units.

Fig. 4 is a perspective of the armature for each vibrator unit.

Figs. 5 and 6 are views from the side and front respectively of modified forms of vibrator units which will be used.

Referring first to Fig. 3, the vibrator illustrated there is generally similar to the vibrator disclosed and claimed in Patent 2,252,882 previously identified. Inasmuch as this patent fully describes this vibrator only a brief description thereof will be given here. The vibrator comprises frame 10 of ferro-magnetic material, such as soft iron. Frame 10 is here illustrated as being U-shaped but in practice the modern trend has been to cut olf one of the arms of the U.

At one end of the frame is winding 11 with pole piece 12. At the other end of the frame is stack 15 in which are clamped reed 16 and a number of contact supporting arms 17 and 18. In this particular construction an auxiliary spring reed 20 is provided carrying a driving contact. Fixed contact 22 carried by frame 10 cooperates with the driving contact.

Reed 16 carries armature 25 at the free end thereof for cooperation with the opposed end of pole piece 12. As is more fully described in the patent, reed 16 vibrates with the armature passing back and forth across the end of pole piece 12. The reed carrying movable contacts alternately makes and breaks against the contacts carried by arms 17 and 18. In the construction illustrated in the patent, two contacts are simultaneously made in addition to the driving contact. Such a construction has been used in connection with automobile radios for the purpose of interrupting the battery currents going into a transformer and rectifying the stepped up potential in the transformer secondary circuit. Many vibrators only provide one set of contacts for use in the primary transformer circuit and make no provision for rectification, this being left to an electron discharge tube or a selenium rectifier.

In accordance with the present invention, armature 25 on reed 16 has laterally offset ends 26 and 27 as illustrated in Figs. 2 and 4. Ends 26 and 27 project beyond the normal outline of the vibrator and permit the armatures of a number of adjacent vibrators to be mechanically coupled together. As illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, a number of vibrators A, B, C, and D are disposed in parallel aligned relation in any suitable manner. Thus, as an example, support bar 30 may be bolted to a part of frame 10 of each vibrator so that the vibrator units are maintained with their respective armatures in aligned relation.

It will be noted that offset portion 26, for example, of one vibrator will engage offset portion 27 of the adjacent vibrator. Thus, the armatures are not rigidly coupled. Instead, one armature is coupled to the adjacent armature only for one direction of armature travel. The adjacent varmatures are otherwise free of any rigid mechanical connection.

As many vibrator units as desired may thus be coupled, it being understood that the vibrator units themselves are similar. Thus a number of vibrator units, each of which will pass commercial inspection of tolerances of 5% frequency variation, may be teamed up in the manner illustrated to provide an overall vibrator system which will operate at one frequency in a satisfactory manner. It is understood that the various contacts of the vibrator units may be connected in parallel so that the load is divided among the vibrator units. In other words, cor responding contacts on the vibrator units will be connected together electrically.

. Thismay be accomplished by'havingone set of prongs for insertion into a circuit for the entire composite vibrator system, in which case connections .from the prongs will have to be made to the respective contacts on the vibrator units. It is also possible to maintain the vibrator structure generally intact, each one having its own prong connections. In-such case, sockets for the vibrator units may be connected in parallel. One housing m ay beprovided :for the entire construction.

lnsteadof-the vibrator construction illustrated in Fig. 3, it is possible to use the vibrator construction illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 and more fully describedin'United States Patent 2,213,854. The principal difference resides in the location of the driving reed 16. Other forms of vibrator may also be used. In all such cases, the armatures are modified to provide for a coupling wherein one armature can drive the adjacent armature only in one direction, the adjacent armature doing the driving in the reverse direction.

Instead of connecting the vibrator units in parallel for handling more current it is possible to vary such connections. Thus the driving contacts may be connected in parallel or series. The various power contacts may also be connected in series or certain contacts may be connected to operate in the primary circuit of va transformer while other contacts may be connected to operate in the secondary windingcircuit for rectification. Inasmuch as these various circuit arrangements are all well'known in the art no showing is deemed to benecessary. It is clear that the contacts of one group may be arranged in parallel or series and the contacts of the other group for rectification may be arrangedin parallel or series independently of the first group.

What is claimed is:

1. A vibrator system comprising a plurality of .separate vibrator units, said units being similar in construction and in operating characteristics, each unithaving ,a ferro-magnetic frame, a flexible reed rigidly supported at one end thereof on said frame and carrying an armature at the other end thereof, an electro magnet including a winding and a polepiece carried by said. frame, said reed armature being adapted to cooperate with said .pole I armature, means for rigidly securing the frame of said units together so that the vibrators are in alignment with the reeds extending in the .same direction and the respective armatures being aligned, the offset end of one armature cooperating with the reversely ofiset end of an adjacent armature, the cooperating offsets providing a non-locking connectionbetween adjacent armature ends with the adjacent armature endsbeing free to move away from each other in the direction of armature vibration so that when adjacent units are energized, one reed will tend to drive .theadjacent reedin one direct-ionof movement and .the adjacent reed will tend to drive the one reed in the opposite direction of movement, and electrical connections jbetween said vibrator units for increased power handling capacity.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein said armatures each have two offset ends, said armatures all being identical whenviewed from the same direction, anumber of vibrator units being rigidly coupled together through their frames with the armatures being consecutively coupled together.

3. The construction according to claim 1 wherein the armature has the offset end of substantially half the thicknessof the armature body.

4. Avibrator system comprising aplurality of separate vibratorunits, said units being similar in construction and operating characteristics, each unit having a ferromagnetic frame, a flexible reed rigidly supported at one end thereof on said frame and carrying an armature at the-other end thereof, an electro-rnagnet including a winding and a pole ,piececarried by said frame, said :reed armature being adapted to-cooperate with said pole piece during reed vibration, each .unit having stationary and movable cooperating .contacts with the winding being connected through certain contacts so that a source of direct current may be used for causing vibrator operation, each armature having a portion extending lengthwise of the armaturevand laterally beyond the reed edges, means for rigidly securing. said units together so that the vibrators are in alignment withythereeds extending in'the same direction and the respective armatures being aligned, ends of adjacent armatures overlapping and being complementarily shaped, the complementar-ily shaped armature ends providing a non-locking connection between adjacent armatureends with the adjacent armature ends being freeto move away from 'eaohother in the direction of armature vibration and electrical connections between said vibrator units for increased .power handling capacity.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,213,854 Wood Sept. 3, 1940 2,252,882 Dressel Aug. 19, 1941 23. 9 6 .K- l e p 3, 1 4. 

